Table 1: Baseline characteristics of the 634 first trimester pregnant women recruited for NAFLD assessment
Though the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus reported by only 6 women, 18 (including the 6 with DM) reported history of hyperglycemia detected once or more than once. Prevalence of hypertension (36, 5.9%), dyslipidemias (8, 1.3%), hypothyroidism (17, 2.7%) was low. Of the multigravida women, history of GDM was reported by 17 (2.7%) and the history of having at least one miscarriage was 19.1% (n=121).
Of the pregnant women recruited, 324 (51.2%) had either grade I fatty liver (FLG I) (n=234, 37.0%, 95% CI 33.2% - 40.9%) or grade II fatty liver (FLG II) (90, 14.2%, 95% CI 11.6% - 17.2%). None of the participants had fatty liver grade III (FLG III).
The prevalence of fatty liver in the non-pregnant group was 51.7%, with grade II and grade I prevalence of 14.2% (n 21) and 37.0%(n 4), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups.
All tested liver parameters, biophysical parameters and OGTT 2nd hour values gradually increased across the fatty liver grades. The difference between fatty liver grades I and II was higher than the difference between grades 0 and I in all parameters except the FBS value, minimum DBP, portal vein diameter and dome-to-pole length. FBS in the first trimester was reduced gradually across the fatty liver grades (Table 2).